It’s very clear from the current state of Victoria’s environment that bold action is needed by the Andrews Government to protect the places and wildlife we love – our National Parks, forests, rivers, beaches, oceans, native plants and animals.

On Thursday 28 November, the fifth anniversary of the election of the Andrews Government, environment and community groups from across Victoria will rally together to demand real action to protect Victoria's nature.

On Sunday the 27th of October, members of Energy Justice Victoria (EJV) visited Westernport Bay for the third week of the Fossil Frontlines Community Tour. EJV co-hosted a community meeting with local groups Save Westernport and Westernport and Peninsula Protection Council in the vibrant Balnarring township.

Transforming Victoria

There is an urgent climate imperative to transform our democratic, economic, energy and food systems.

In the midst of the climate crisis, inequality is also on the rise. In September 700,000 people across Australia were out of work, and underemployment rates are on the rise.

Earlier this year, we released an initial document outlining the beginnings of a vision to #TransformVIC with a focus on Creating Jobs while Cutting Emissions.

After consulting with a broad spectrum of allies, the latest version of the Transforming Victoria report is live, and incorporates additional elements of a just transitions framework which goes beyond jobs, and begins to look to alternative models of powering and structuring our communities to be resilient to the far-reaching implications of climate impacts here in Victoria.

Golden Beach is a seaside town on Ninety Mile Beach between Loch Sport and Seaspray (where EJV launched the Community Tour on the 11th of October). Along the foreshore camping spots back onto dune paths leading to the white sand and blue ocean, home to endangered nesting plovers and a vibrant marine life.

There is an urgent climate imperative to transform our democratic, economic, energy and food systems.

IN the midst of the climate crisis, inequality is also on the rise. In September 700,000 people across Australia were out of work, and underemployment rates are on the rise (ABS Via Trading Economics).

Earlier this year, we released an initial document outlining the beginnings of a vision to #TransformVIC with a focus on Creating Jobs while Cutting Emissions.

After consulting with a broad spectrum of allies, the latest version of the Transforming Victoria report is live,and incorporates additional elements of a just transitions framework which goes beyond jobs, and begins to look to alternative models of powering and and structuring our communities to be resilient to the far reaching implications of climate impacts here in Victoria.

We welcome continued input into the scope and content of the report and anticipate a release of a final document in February 2020.

Seaspray is a small Victorian coastal town on the southern end of beautiful Ninety Mile Beach, around 32 kilometres south of Sale. A member of the Lock the Gate Alliance, Gasfield Free Seaspray was integral to the statewide campaign from 2011 to 2017 that gained the historic fracking ban from the VIC Labor government.

The Seaspray community, with so many others across the state, fought hard to see unconventional gas drilling (fracking) banned permanently for the benefit of water quality, tourism and farming in the area. The campaign also saw a temporary moratorium placed on onshore conventional gas exploration.

Victoria has taken another step forward in the renewable energy transition, with the bill to increase the state’s renewable energy target to 50% by 2030 passing the upper house while the federal Coalition continues to deny action on climate crisis.

“While the federal Coalition continues to fail the public on climate change, Victoria’s decision to increase the state renewable energy target to 50% Renewables by 2030 is a welcome step in the right direction that will create jobs in climate action across the state” said Pat Simons, Friends of the Earth’s Yes 2 Renewables Campaigner.

Victoria’s Renewable Energy Target has been critical to kickstarting the sector, creating jobs in wind and solar and driving the energy transition across the state.

The story of the Merri Creek begins more than 4.6 billion years ago, as its pathway was eroded through sandy sediments left behind by a receding sea. From 4.6 to 0.8 billion years ago, lava from volcanic eruptions flowed down the Merri and Darebin creek valleys, along the Yarra to the Yarra to the CBD. The remains of these lava flows are still evident.

(Comparatively) more recently, the Merri Creek was inhabited by the Wurundjeri-willam people, and scar trees and other important artifacts remain along its trajectory. Once a thriving ecosystem, it sustained the Wurundjeri-willam with bountiful eel, murnong, shellfish, ducks and nearby kangaroo and emu.

Sign up to Walk This Way today and hear about the origins of Friends of Merri Creek from one of their members on our walk along the Merri Creek.

Over the last week, the ‘Spring Rebellion’ called by Extinction Rebellion (XR) mobilised thousands of people around the country to get involved in actions to demand that government declare a climate emergency.

Friends of the Earth understands why the community is so angry about government inaction and why they are joining XR. Given the comprehensive failure of multiple governments to act on climate, it was inevitable and necessary for a movement like XR to emerge. We support the right of communities to engage in peaceful direct action in defence of the environment.

Friends of the Earth acknowledge that we meet and work on the land of the Wurundjeri people and that sovereignty of the land of the Kulin Nation were never ceded. We pay respect to their Elders, past and present, and acknowledge the pivotal role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within the Australian community.